The present invention relates to waste proposal and more particularly to a recycling apparatus for crushing and pasteurizing used hypodermic syringes and compressing waste generated in hospital.
A conventional used hypodermic syringe processing apparatus discloses a cutting means including several blades for cutting the hollow metal needle of a used hypodermic syringe into two pieces. However, the previous apparatus suffered from several disadvantages. For example, a used syringe is only cut not crushed. Hence, virus still exists in the cut syringe. In a worse case a person involved in the processing of such syringes may be infected by virus accidentally. Also, part of metal needle is still attached to the piston syringe, thus increasing the difficulty of processing. In other words, it is preferred that needle is separated from piston syringe after cut for ease of subsequent recycling process. Thus improvement exists.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a recycling apparatus comprising a body; a slit on top of the body having a width only permitting a piston syringe portion of a hypodermic syringe to pass through while holding a hollow metal needle of the syringe thereon, the slit having a hole on one end for permitting the piston syringe portion of the syringe to drop into the body; a rear pasteurizing mechanism inside the body under the slit comprising a pulverizing device for pulverizing the needle of the syringe into powder, a first drive source for driving the pulverizing device, a channel extended downward from the first drive source for guiding the dropped powder, and a bottom first container; a front crushing mechanism inside the body under the hole comprising two sets of parallel blade wheels, a second drive source, a reduction gear for reducing a rotating speed of the second drive source, a loop member coupled between the reduction gear and one set of the blade wheels for transmitting a power of the second drive source to one set of the blade wheels, and a bottom second container, and a waste storage mechanism attached to the front side of the body and comprising a third container, a top downwardly tapered opening, a hinge on the top edge of the third container opposite to the opening, a spring-loaded lever having one end coupled to the hinge, a connecting rod having one end pivotably coupled to the bottom of the lever, and a plunger pivotably coupled to the other end of the connecting rod being capable of sliding in the third container, wherein in one state of use sequentially insert the needles of the used syringes into the slit with the piston syringe portion of the syringe held on the slit, push the used syringes forward to cause the needles of the syringes to contact the pulverizing device to be ground into powder while being pasteurized, the powder are dropped into the first container through the channel, the remained piston syringe portion of each of the syringes eventually drops into the crushing mechanism through the hole, the dropped piston syringe portion of each of the syringes is pressed and cut into pieces by the sets of the blade wheels, and the pieces are dropped into the second container; and in the other state of use lift the lever up to allow waste to store in the third container through the opening, and push down the lever to cause the plunger to compress the waste.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.